Yesterday did what I always do on AGM day - forgot it completely and went birding!
I got to Bowling Green not quite for the high tide, but close enough. The bird I was hoping to see had stayed put, though it took a lot of waiting before it finally showed itself - having neatly hidden amidst the throng.
Male Ruff, summer plumage, black form. Wow.
The light was.. well, abysmal, and I managed to make an idiot of myself again, but still... That bird? Worth it.
With a burst of sunshine and lighter winds, I figured maybe a wandering raptor might be on the cards. Well, there's one place that always springs to mind in this circumstance. Somewhere with a lot of memories for me.
The Haldon Bird Of Prey Viewpoint holds a special place in my heart. Not just for the 5 raptor Lifers, either. Or that you had a good shot of seeing them all in a day. Without doing more than turn your head. This of course was 'back in the day', during my first flush of birding when I was but a lad and that, dear reader, was the heady days of the late 80s. Birds I don't even [usually] mention were publicised as breeding there - though that alas is also ancient history.
I got there today and once again I couldn't believe how much the trees have grown. It really does make you feel old. [I get the same thing at Sousson's - one clearing where I once sat on a stump and watched Crossbills is now a mass of two-storey trees..] It also buggers up a once-great panorama and makes picking a spot to sit your arse down and wait for something to fly past a trial. I plonked down on the end of one of the picnic tables - the benches are now too low down and/or too off to one side - and set to.
Skywatching is a lot like seawatching, only drier and with less going on. This is especially true when you're beset with haze, as was the case here. Birds would just vanish while you were looking at them - not even side-on, either [dreadfully rude, that] - and thus also could appear from seemingly empty sky, so constant vigilance was required. An exercise in masochism, surely? Buzzards Buzzards and more Buzzards, all way off in the gunk, right?
Well, yes. Lots of Buzzards. Watching territorial pairs beating up passers by was quite amusing, and there was the odd hirundine moving through to try to ID [that haze waxed and waned; when it waxed things got interesting..], as well as at least 40 Racing Pigs and a duck! Duck ID in haze is fun, but I got on it early and eventually clinched it. Yeah, a Mallard.
Closer to, the star of the show was a lovely male Yellowhammer. Icy cool this one, singing on despite noisy cyclists,
Today all that sunshine saw myself and the Folks up on't Moor. We did one of my favourite walks; Holne Moor to Ryder's Hill to the Heap of Sinners, Huntingdon Warren, Puper's Hill, the Mardle valley and contouring back around. In blazing sunshine and a moderate wind, we made good going over the very dry Moor. Gerts are quite useful things, sometimes. Especially when you are accompanied by a deranged dog that thinks sheep the best part of a mile away can even hear her.. So it is thanks to our industrious forebears that we had a quiet lunch :)
Tea turned out a little noisier, partly due to a babbling Mardle, but mostly due to a Cuckoo - one of three for the day and the only one which showed itself. Less noisy but even more showy were Wheatears around HW; at least 5 of them :) More vocal and not at all showy were Willow Warblers and Yellowhammers. Picking a male Yellowhammer out in a conifer is fairly easy, getting one sat on a blooming gorse bush among several dozen other similarly blooming gorse bushes is really not... Still fun trying, though.
Tomorrow [well, today now].. Hmmph. Bloody weather. Why can't we have some proper seawatching weather, eh? Or failing that, something brilliant in reasonable twitching range? A nice Devon Roller, say?
[[Hey, if you don't ask...]]
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